Thursday, 3 March 2011

A huge gum tree from our neighbours property decided to 'drop by' and see us during the windy weather on Wednesday.... hope they let us keep the wood, as it'll smell lovely on the fireplace :)

One of the fun joys of living on a lifestyle block! Poor fences are being squashed, and a few large branches of the silver birch will have to come off too, it's not enjoying holding up a whole gum tree's weight!

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

I've recently decided to take some time off from IT, and hang out at our lifestyle property, doing a few small things on my own.

To keep busy when I've got downtime, I've rediscovered sewing! And am putting that skill to use making some bags. Here's the two I've recently completed - both using pretty cheap fabrics, and free patterns from the internet.

The carry all/diaper/nappy bag - designed as a nappy bag (pattern is called 'The Detour Bag'), but great also for hauling lots of stuff about. Only took two or three tries to get the lining in correctly :) Canvas bag with cotton lining and detail. Cheated and used velcro for the main closure - was supposed to use a magnetic snap. Took about four hours all up - cutting all the fabric out took nearly half of that time.

And today I made a little fabric handbag in 2 hours that I'm quite liking - however the pattern didn't mention using interfacing or stiffening on the strap, which in hindsight would be better as it's a little 'flimsy' feeling on the strap. Next time!